Sorry for the delay for getting this up. I'm day to day with a bout of the flu.

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BLUES (11-9-2) at COYOTES (11-9-3)

TV: FS-MW, FS-A

Last 10: St. Louis 5-4-1; Phoenix 5-4-1

Season series: This is the first of three meetings, and the only at the Jobing.com Arena. St. Louis took three of four from Phoenix last season, although the Coyotes won the final meeting of the season, 4-1, on April 6, 2012.

Big story: After conceding 10 goals in the first two games of its five-game road trip, St. Louis will try to recapture its defensive prowess against Phoenix. The Coyotes, winners of three of five against tough competition, will look to bolster their postseason resume with a victory.

Team scope:

Blues: After a strong defensive outing in a 4-2 win against Edmonton last Friday, St. Louis set out on its longest road trip of the season hoping to continue that trend. But things have gone from bad – a 4-1 loss in Dallas on Sunday – to worse, as the Blues conceded five unanswered goals in a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Los Angeles. The Blues led 4-1 midway through the second period, but the Kings came roaring back, scoring five times over the final 30 minutes. Jaroslav Halak was pulled after conceding five goals, the most the Blues’ goalie has given up since March 12, 2011.

With goaltending a concern, the Blues recalled Jake Allen from Peoria of the American Hockey League late Tuesday night.

"We took our foot off the gas, and you can't do that against good teams," captain David Backes said. "They took it to us. We made too many mistakes and they put it in the back of our net. We got off our game plan and tried to be too cute in our end when they were putting pressure on us, rather than just getting the puck out and working it down the ice the way we did in the first period.”

Coyotes: In a scheduling quirk borne from the shortened season, Phoenix just faced streaking Anaheim three consecutive times. The first two, both at Jobing.com Arena, were nearly identical 5-4 shootout wins for Phoenix. The Coyotes, typically a low-scoring, tight-checking outfit, were boosted by the two high-scoring wins.

“That's a very good team and 5-4 is not our usual game plan,” center Antoine Vermette said after the second game. “But we found a way to fight and keep pace. It's a good sign that we can step outside our style and find a way to get points.”

Unfortunately, Wednesday’s third and final Ducks matchup, played more at Phoenix’s hard-checking pace, resulted in a 2-0 win for Anaheim. Jason LaBarbera made 22 saves to keep Phoenix in it, but the Coyotes were unable to get out of their defensive zone for much of the game and managed only 18 shots.

Who’s hot: David Perron has a two goals and an assist in his last two games for St. Louis.

Injury report: The Blues’ struggles can in part be chalked to injuries to important offensive players. Forwards Andy McDonald (knee), Alexander Steen (shoulder), Vladimir Tarasenko (concussion) are all day-to-day, while Jamie Langenbrunner (hip) is out for the season. … For Phoenix, Radim Vrbata (lower body) and David Schlemko (upper body) are day-to-day.

Best overall effort we've seen in a bit...aside from the two miscues at the end of the first and beginning of the 2nd that led to goals against.Allen made the saves he was supposed to. Haven't seen that in a while either.

Hopefully the LA game was a wakeup call in that even when you are comfortably up in a game, you don't ease off the gas with 1/3 of the game left.

It was interesting that the very next game after the LA implosion, we find ourselves again up 4-2 going into the 3rd period. Much different outcome this time. It's not like Phoenix didn't have their chances though. But Allen didn't give up any bad ones.

That win was big as it put us back in the top 8, leapfrogging Phoenix in the standings...and now we're only 2 pts. out of 4th place. Righting the ship now can still easily see us finishing 2nd in the division, 4th in the conference. It's just a matter of doing it...and hopefully getting our 2nd line back in the process.

The Blues are still suffering from crippling mistakes, ones that they seemed to make few and far between last year. But unlike the LA game, the Blues bounced back. They came out with a second period and scored 3 goals to take back the lead, but they pretty much dominated most of the play in that period. Adding 2 more in the 3rd gave them some breathing room. Good response to see, just wish they would do it more often.

I don't know what it is, but Allen seems to come in and calm everything down. Granted, the Blues scored 6 goals, so that helps. But he's 4-1 as starter now, and each time he's been called up, he's halted losing streaks. I'm with Curt, I don't see how you can't start him on Saturday. He's going to have a bad game at some point, but for now, you've got to ride the hot hand.

Anyone still on the trade Perron & Stewart bandwagon?I'm guessing that wagon is pretty empty this morning.

Yeah, I was never on the 'trade Stewart' bandwagon to begin with.

My reasoning behind trading DP was based on him being completely miss-cast on that first line. Much of his 'selfish play' was often a result of no one to pass it to. It's pointless to skate your most offensively talented forward on a line that we're told their first responsibility is shutting the opponent's top line down. And I wasn't campaigning to move him (again, he's possibly the most talented offensive player on the roster), I was merely discussing why it could be a reasonable thing to do.

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